Adam Silver 'on the fence' about changing intentional foul rules
It started out as Hack-a-Shaq.
That one, at least, was easy on the ears. It was punchy. It rhymed. These days we have Hack-a-Dwight, Hack-an-Asik, Hack-a-Dorsey, Hack-a-Jordan.
The issues with the strategy, of course, go well beyond its uncreative titles. The strategy - by which a team in the bonus intentionally fouls a poor free-throw shooter to send said player to the line, rather than allow an opponent to run an offense - is an aesthetic cataclysm and a fan's nightmare. It slows games down, drags them out and makes them infinitely less exciting.
It's also, unfortunately, a pragmatic tactic that can throw an opposing offense completely out of sync. San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was an early adopter, and continues to be one of its most aggressive employers.
In his team's Game 2 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, Popovich opted to repeatedly foul DeAndre Jordan - a 39.7 percent free-throw shooter - down the stretch, grinding a thrilling, fast-paced game to a halt at its most critical juncture. Jordan shot 17 free throws and hit just six. That's a wildly inefficient offense, even if the Clippers managed to rebound a bundle of those misses.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he's considered the issue at length, but can't decide whether or not a rule change would be in the league's best interests.
"I've gone back and forth," Silver said Thursday, according to Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press.
"I've sat in meetings with some of the greatest players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird who said that players should learn to make their free throws and it's part of the game. At the same time, it doesn't make for great television, so I'm on the fence right now."
Silver acknowledged that he occasionally finds the strategy to be an interesting wrinkle.
"But in other games I watch it and I think, 'Oh my God, I feel people changing the channels,"' he said. "So we're also an entertainment property that's competing against a lot of other options that people have for their discretionary time."
Silver said he expects the topic of a potential rule change to be discussed by general managers at their annual meeting in May and by the Competition Committee in June.
"I've listened to owners change their point of view on it both ways. General managers and coaches as well," he said. "Sometimes the issue with coaches and general managers, of course, it depends on who's on their roster at any given time as well, understandably. So it's our job to take a longer-term view of it, but I think that's one of those issues that we're going to be very engaged in over the next few months."